Author of What Is Hidden

The release of The Fairest Poison is only two weeks away! So I’ve decided to share the full first chapter with you a little early. Enjoy! Don’t forget to pre-order your signed copy from TKE!

Chapter One

My parents were sick.

That was the first news I received when I returned to the palace after nearly six months away. I was Venesia’s princess, and so its ambassador. I was happy to serve . . . but not if it meant coming home to this.

I’m going to be updating a lot up until The Fairest Poison’s release, so be sure to keep checking back here or at my social media accounts. Today’s exciting news is about pre-orders! If you order through The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, I’ll be signing all of those. You can order here. Be sure to order by May 9!

The release of The Fairest Poison is one month away! And to celebrate, I wanted to do something new with this book and try having a book trailer, which I’m releasing today. Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments!

I want to apologize for my extremely long absence between posts. If you’ve been following my instagram, you’ll know I broke my ankle/leg two days before Christmas, and I’ve had a really hard time recovering from that and finishing up with The Fairest Poison. Behind the scenes has been a scary place.

This is my ankle. Look how messed up it is. That really long horizontal screw was removed in a follow-up surgery last Monday, but everything else is there to stay.

However, the good news is that I’m feeling a lot better (though still a work in progress) and TFP is still on track to release May 10. I’m working on a few things for the release, but nothing is finalized yet so keep an eye out.

As for a blog tour, please let me know if you’re interested! I will try to respond ASAP. If you don’t hear from me in a couple days, leave a comment, or try to @ me on one of my many social media accounts. I’m looking for book bloggers willing to post during the second week of May, and am happy to do interviews or guest posts.

I promise not to go so long before the next blog post, especially as I gear up for the release. I’m feeling a lot of feelings about this last book, as it’s the last one set in the world I’ve created and it’s been such a difficult road to getting it out there, but I’m excited to share it with you!

Princess Bianca returns to her court to find it poisoned from the inside out. Faced with mysterious sicknesses, power disputes, and whispers of impending death, Bianca turns to an unlikely ally—a former assassin—to find the antidote that will save her kingdom. But Bianca quickly realizes that she might not even be able to save her own life in this Snow White story.

And now the cover:

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

You can also add it to your Goodreads shelf now, or pre-order on Amazon! I haven’t worked out details about signed copies yet, so keep an eye out for that in the months to come. This will hit shelves in May 2016.

I’m naturally a curious person, so when I saw this Shelfie Hop, I thought it was the coolest thing. A bunch of people posting what their shelves look like? Cool! Now, I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago, so my shelves are still kind of messy, but honestly, they’re never going to get much neater. Apologies for bad lighting in advance.

This first shelf has my favorite hardcovers on it. I’ve pretty much run out of room all across the board, but most of my favorite series have made it on here. Then on the left are two make-shift shelves (which are just crates): the top has some old favorite paperbacks, and the bottom is full of ARCS or free books I got at Comic-Con and still need to read.

You can also see one of my cooler masks in its little box. Normally it’s on the shelf too, but I pulled it forward so you could see the books better.

The red panda I got in Japantown when I visited LA earlier this year, and the flowered fabric is a wrap I got in Hawaii a couple years ago.

Next is my slightly bigger shelf, which holds signed paperbacks and the hardbacks that didn’t make the cut. Also some of the little figures I have and – surprise – more masks.

Some of the cool things to point out:

The silver mask is the one that helped inspire WHAT IS HIDDEN

The crochet fire ferret was given to me by a reader

That bottle of sand is from when I went to a family reunion in Florida

Last is a little tiny shelf that used to be a nightstand but now it just holds lots of paperbacks. On top is another crate with a bunch of historical romance novels and other non-YA novels.

The white mask in the box is my favorite, and you’ll probably be seeing more of it as I promote my next book. These shelves also hold a bunch of photo books and manga.

The Inuyasha plush dolls I received from my host brother (who I think was about 7 at the time) waay back when I was a student ambassador in Japan. That pink mask is from Tokyo DisneySea from when I lived in Japan and worked as an English teacher.

And not pictured are the three other boxes under my bed or in my closet with non-fiction, textbooks and other assorted books that I just didn’t have room for. Plus another crate (or two) in the basement storage. I keep meaning to go through them but haven’t made it to that point yet. I’m a bit of a packrat, though I’m MUCH better now than when I was younger. If you can believe that.

If there’s anything pictures you’d like to know more about, feel free to ask in the comments! Or you can check out some of these other shelfies from other blogs under the cut!

Salt Lake Comic Con was great, my summer madness is winding down, and things are moving right along with my next book, so it’s finally time to share the title with you! Drumroll please….

THE FAIREST POISON

Now, to answer a few commonly asked questions:

Q: Is this still connected to the first two books?
A: Yes, it takes places directly after the events of WHAT IS LOST.

Q: Which fairy tale will it be drawing from?
A: Snow White

Q: Who will be the narrator?
A: Bianca, who you met in WHAT IS LOST as the noble in the purple mask. She is also Aiden’s younger sister.

Q: Why isn’t this another WHAT IS title?
A: Originally, it was going to be titled WHAT IS FOUND in order to tie in with the other books in the series. However, my publisher wanted a title that was more reflective of the fairy tale aspect, and one that would be more inviting to new readers. The plot will be contained in the one book, so it can be read alone, though it will of course have references to the others for long-time readers to enjoy (and tie up some loose ends).

Q: Will we get to see Evie and Aiden again?
A: Yes.

Q: Any more details?
A: There’s no official plot summary yet, and I am still writing, so there’s not much more I can say right now.

I’ve seen the first draft of the cover, but there’s nothing official there yet either. Hopefully soon, because I think it will be another beautiful one!

THE FAIREST POISON will be out May 2016. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Are you excited?? Seven months to go!

The origin of fairytales is often contested or completely disregarded in favor of more consumable and pleasant versions that have evolved over the ages. Many fairy tales are rooted in gruesome or disturbing origins that beg to be analyzed and prodded – something that our panelists are delighted to do.

So be sure to come check either or both of those out if you’re going to be there Thursday. I hope to see you there! If you can’t come, check my twitter and instagram to follow along with me all three days.

Where did this summer go? I can’t believe it’s already September 1st (who’s on the train to Hogwarts today?).

I did a casual Rose Quartz (Steven Universe) cosplay one day and managed to snag this beautiful ARC (which I’ve been too busy to even read yet T_T)

I had some major events these past few months – a brother got married, I moved to a new house (twice so far with a third pending), and I went to San Diego Comic-Con. I love going to SDCC, this was my second year and it was a little less intense than last year (when I camped out over night to get into Ballroom 20 for the Korra panel), but it still left me completely exhausted by the end. Met some great authors and saw some cool panels and had a fun time overall.

Speaking of Comic Con, I’ll be at Salt Lake with a booth and everything! I’ve teamed up with some other authors from Cedar Fort, and will be signing and selling books Friday and Saturday. The booth will be open all three days, but here’s my schedule:

Booth #1908
Friday 9/25 2:30pm – 7:30pm
Saturday 9/26 9am – 2pm

The booth is in the bottom corner of the L, right in front of Hall A (sorry so tiny):

Definitely come by and say hi! We’ll have candy and swag and I’ll have my special stamps for any books I sign in person. Here are the other authors that will be there at various times of the day:

This past week I had my first group singing at Barnes & Noble. I was at the Orem store on Thursday with three other authors and it was great.

Look, a poster with my face on it.

Here’s the tables all nice and pretty before the event. I had my own mini-table. I got too distracted to take any pictures when people were there. Oops.

A lot of people from Cedar Fort came out to support us, so I got to meet a bunch of people in person for the first time. All my work and communication with them is done over emails, so it was nice to put the names to faces. I also got lots of behind-the-scenes stories, which was super fun.

All the authors had giveaways with items related to their books, so I gave away a cool mask. These are the things to look forward to when you come to events. The people at B&N were great, and I left several signed copies behind, so be sure to grab one if you can.

I also got to tell people the released date for the next book. It doesn’t have a final title yet (hopefully soon) but I can now say that book number three will be released:

May 10, 2016!

I love May releases because my birthday is in May and it’s nice to share book birthdays with my own. I’ll be slowly releasing more information as the date gets closer.

If you missed this event and still want to meet me, check out the Events tab at the top of the page. My next event is at Salt Lake Comic Con, so I hope to see some of you there!